


A Winter's Cry

by yukikun13



Series: Andrew Leibel - NWM [3]
Category: New World Magischola (Live-Action Roleplaying Game)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-04 04:54:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10983786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yukikun13/pseuds/yukikun13
Summary: The culmination of major events that happened at the NWM: Winter's Cry event, January 2017.





	1. Barrier

It was Delilah cackling evilly that told Andrew that something was very, _very_ wrong. 

As he came into the room, Delilah’s whole demeanor had changed. Her brows were furrowed, her stance aggressive… Confident, but volatile. The way she spoke didn’t have the gentle curves to her words like normal; each consonant was a dry twig that snapped in his eardrum. 

His eyes scanned the room. Jophiel wasn’t here, neither was Xandria or Milo. He’d freak out about the latter being missing later. Beatrisa and Jason were standing near Delilah, and as Andrew neared, Bea’s eyes looked at him with their timid ‘what do I do?’ look that he had been getting so often for the past day. 

As Mietto’s diatribe with Delilah continued, Andrew heard key phrases, such as “Jay” and “mother” and “hurt.” Although Andrew’s own experience with her was fairly limited to say the least, Aveline’s protectiveness of Jay was something that _everyone_ knew about, and being the Forscythe’s roommate had its perks sometimes. 

A fireball slammed into Mietto and shoved him against the wall. His snarls, along with the smell of burning skin and clothes and the bewildered, angry cries of “Delilah” filled the air. _‘No, no, no, stop!’_ Andrew’s mind was taken over by panic asRoxy stepped forward to threaten her way to Mietto’s defense.

“... so uncivilized and impolite--” Delilah started.

“Mrs. Almgren!” Andrew burst in, trying to come from her side. He politely stood and tried to gain her attention. He’d seen Margeary and Azra do it enough, charm their way out of just about anything. “I’m so sorry that they are being so r--”

Delilah’s arm wrapped around his shoulders and the pointed tip of a wand dug into the side of his trachea. Andrew’s neck stiffened, and his teeth clenched behind closed lips. Nope, he was definitely _not_ good at this charming thing. “Wands down, or do you want me to kill this little boy?” she sneered, and Roxy looked at Andrew once, briefly, before she backed up. 

As Delilah turned, Andrew still within her clutches, she looked and found Jason, still standing tall and foreboding behind her. It was then that she let Andrew go, and instead focused all of her attention onto the tallest bird of the flock.

“What’s your name?”

Andrew saw the tension in his lip. “Jason.”

“And your last name?”

More tension. “Akeldama.”

“Oh… Akeldama…” The glee in her voice was thick and slimy. "Oh, you might do after all. Your great grandfather was a brilliant man." 

Andrew held his wand tighter within his fist, knowing Jason’s disdain for almost _everything_ his lineage entailed, particularly the surname. As Jason bit back against Raegan’s careless praise for the one person Jason seemed to hate the most, Andrew stood to his side. “ _Pretectiva aurum… Pretectiva aurum…’_ Whispers and a wand pointed to Jason’s back shuffled a protective field around him. Since Jayden’s kidnapping last semester, Andrew’s knowledge of protection and shielding spells had grown because of their agility compared to runes. Bea’s presence by Andrew’s left wasn’t unnoticed, and Andrew muttered carefully, “We need to protect him… This is _not_ good…”

It was then that Bastian Reese tried to protect Jason. Andrew listened carefully as Bastian took the attention and focus away from his bird. But Raegan was prepared, and suddenly, with a mutter of some spell, Bastian began to grip against the wall near him to keep from falling. “You don’t need all that power, honey… So I’m just going to take it all from you…”

“NO!”

Beatrisa jumped in front of him, yelled something, and Andrew felt a sudden jerk. He felt like he took two breaths in the same second. He couldn’t hear what Beatrisa had said, but Raegan had been disoriented enough to stammer “You can use time magic?!”

‘ _Time…?!’_

The rise of Delilah’s wand made Andrew panic. “PROTECTUM MAJORUM!” he bellowed, jumping in front of Beatrisa just as Raegan cast something. A hard hit slammed into the energy barrier that Andrew had created, a gigantic shield spreading from the cascade of his wand. Andrew felt his lip curl as he looked at Raegan, feeling his magic flowing through his arm and into his hand, and he pulled it back to release the barrier, threat obliterated. He pointed the tip of his wand at Raegan. “Not my birds,” he growled slowly, his eyes staying focused on the target in front of him.

She laughed. “Oh, honey, you think you can beat me?”

Andrew glowered. “Bring it.”

“By the powers of this Lodge...” The interruption made Andrew break focus. He looked to the left. Members of the Lodge had gathered, their wands crossed, and Andrew felt the surge of power next to him, “We cast you _out_!”

Raegan’s laughter snapped more twigs in Andrew’s ears. “You know that doing anything won’t hurt me, but will hurt this precious little flower child… Although she really could stand to have something done about these clothes, or this hair…” Raegan began taunting, as the Lodge members came closer. Andrew circled around his birds, continuing to flank Raegan with his wand pointed directly at her, until she was backed into a corner, a physical wall behind her, and a wall of people in front. Andrew looked at the ground and changed his wand position towards his feet, now casting and holding a protective wall spell. Faintly white, the barrier hit the ground like a waterfall and then piled over itself, building a wall to keep all out except Raegan… Until Bastian stepped through. Andrew grunted as his spell fluttered around Bastian’s body, leaving a hole that he poured magic into to fix. 

“We have to help him,” Bea whispered to Andrew.

Andrew gritted his teeth. “If I stop, they won’t be protected… Look at all of these people…” His quick scan around saw Laveau, Dan Obeah, Croatan… Almost everyone was here, and if he didn’t protect them… He had taken months to get over what had happened to Jayden, at least to where he could live with himself, but if he let more people get hurt or die…?

Margeary stepped through the barrier as Raegan charged up for a spell to aim at Bastian. “BASTIAN!” she screamed. 

“MARGEARY NO!” Andrew’s own cry rang out.

The barrier faltered. Jason stepped through before Andrew could realize what was happening, and, with a smooth movement, slapped a bracelet onto Raegan. Andrew took a minute to realize what it was… The Artificier Association had just crafted that mere _hours_ ago… A power dissolution bracelet…

She crumpled to the ground. As students continued to wall around them, Andrew came close, listening as Minerva took charge and made a plan to get Delilah back and exorcise Raegan. Bea came next to her, kneeling, giving Minerva her hand and lending power. Andrew, quick to the draw, took Bea’s other. The power-suck pulled energy through his arm, whatever he hadn’t expended on powerful protection magic. He felt like blood was being pulled from his body. “Let me out!” Delilah screamed, writhing on the floor, “Let me out, let me out, let me out!”

“Delilah, it’s me! Follow me out! I’m right here!” Although Andrew’s irritation at Minerva from her horrible Mind-Magic class was still fresh from that morning, he stared at her and poured as much magic as he could through his body so that he could help, even if it was just a little bit. Delilah was worth it. He wouldn’t forgive himself if she didn’t come out, and neither would Azra.

It took some time, but as Delilah’s eyes fluttered open, Minerva released Bea’s hand. The birds crumbled, Bea backwards while Andrew fell forwards. He was exhausted, and relieved, and Delilah was confused and asking questions. 

Andrew helped get the cursed charm off, the one that had allowed the possession, and charmed a cloth to put it in so that no one else could be affected until a cursebreaker could take care of it. Then, holding Delilah’s hand while she cried about the awful experience, he stayed with her as Ike Quintana, another time-jumper, was put in charge of removing the cheek with Jay’s rune on it and re-growing the skin cells… Even anesthetized, Delilah clung to Andrew’s hand, and he held on tight, refusing to move from her side until the procedure was done. They called in Icarus “Waffles” Pemberton to deduce if the curse had been broken completely with the removal of the cheek… And, thankfully it had…

As Delilah rested, Andrew went to look for Margeary. As he came up to her, he glared. “Idiot,” he said, harshly. 

She looked at him in her typical Margeary fashion and said, “I’m not an idiot.”

“You went through my protective barrier,” Andrew growled. 

“Bastian was going to get hurt.”

“No, _you_ were going to get hurt. What if you had gotten _killed_?!” Andrew exclaimed. His eyes stared at his friend with rigid intensity. Though his words were uncharacteristically harsh, the tone of concern in his voice was plain and clear. 

She sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“Thank you.” Andrew flicked her forehead. “Dummy.”

“ _You’re_ the dummy.”


	2. Who I Hate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andrew would never hurt a fly...
> 
> Until he's cursed to.

They were told to stay inside. He guarded the door because, of course, people _didn’t_ want to obey the rules. But that didn’t keep him from looking out the window and seeing that there was something going on outside… It looked like people were… ‘ _Fighting.’_

“Uh, Miss Crowther?” he asked, pulling away from the door and walking up to the head of the Lodge. While their interactions had been few and far between the entirety of the past few days, Andrew at least _knew_ who she was, and didn’t feel like she was _entirely_ against them being here. “It… Doesn’t look good outside.”

She left, then returned. They needed healers, and for everyone else to stay inside. Andrew’s adrenaline surged. Healers? Someone was hurt? He stood still while he scanned the room. Beatrisa, Jason, Jophiel, Milo… His birds were accounted for. But where was… Margeary. _‘Oh no_ …’ Margeary never listened, and was one of the first people out even though Maebh Crowther said to _stay inside where it was safe_. 

Andrew’s lips pressed hard together, and he looked at his birds. He looked at Jason, his face stock-still and serious as always. Beatrisa had her same skeptical, confused, almost puppy-dog like expression on. Milo looked, uncharacteristically, serious. Jophiel…. Well, it was difficult to piece together their expression. “Let’s decide together,” Andrew said, looking at all of his birds. He didn’t _like_ the options, but he wasn’t going to demand their rights be taken. “Do we stay, or do we go?” He had to be a role model for the birds for the weekend. He was the president they supposedly needed for two days. He couldn’t just rush into action. Not without them. Not without consulting them. It was all or nothing: either the birds collectively said “fuck the rules!” in true Dan Obeah fashion, or they all stayed inside where it was safe. 

He wasn’t surprised when the collective said to fuck the rules.

Luckily, Jophiel being a healer gave them an out to storm the door. Karina, a Lodge member, tried to restrain Andrew. He blew past her and said, “Like hell I’m letting one of my birds get hurt.” The memory of Jayden’s narrow escape the previous semester still burned in his chest and fueled him to break the rules that the Lodge had set in place. 

If he had thought about it, he might even have thought Karina looked impressed as he and the rest of the birds fluttered out of the lodge and into the dark outside. It was cold, as cold as it had been the past few days, but the grass was still soft beneath his feet. He wasn’t bothered by the temperature change since he had only _one_ goal in mind. 

Andrew’s eyes quickly scanned for his missing Gator. The red-head was easy to find even in the dark. “Margeary!” he called, and she turned. She walked over to him without a hurry, as if the fighting behind her back was nothing. Andrew’s eyes adjusted over her right shoulder, to where Belladonna was being shepherded by two other students. The physical altercation going on further from them involved some spells being cast between Jarek and someone Andrew didn’t recognize. “What’s going on?!” he demanded.

“Someone attacked Jarek, and they cast a spell on Belladonna that made her attack her friends!” she explained, and before Andrew could get more information, Meridia appeared by his right side. 

“Will you help me form pods?” she asked. Andrew looked at her with confusion and slight intimidation. Meridia was, after all, just as terrifying as Medard, regardless of what Delilah or _anyone_ else said.

 

Once she explained to Andrew what the hell ‘pods’ meant, he agreed hastily. He called to form groups, four, to flank the attacker and to get them down. Just as soon as they were casting spells, pulling from each other and using their combined power to make a super-charged ball of flames, Andrew felt something hit him square in the chest.

His whole body went numb and then boiled. He was overcome with rage, more rage than he had felt in the heat of battle, and his eyes looked across the pod circle at Margeary. Where his wand had been pointed to their attacker before, it now was raised to her face.

‘ _No…_ ’

“Andrew…” Margeary’s voice was tense and cautious. Andrew felt tears starting in his eyes. 

“Don’t let me do this.”

“Don’t make me hurt you.” 

“DON’T LET ME DO THIS!” His hands were shaking, his wand vibrating in his right hand as his rage started to hit a breaking point. He was just about ready, a curse he _knew_ was illegal dancing on the tip of his tongue. He could use it in an instant, and Margeary would be dead before she could do anything about it.

Something else hit him in the middle of his back. Something else from the side. Andrew felt his rage burning, but his whole body went rigid and numb again, his powers feeling weak. He could hear Delilah and Lottie casting on him, the spells hitting him over and over: paralysis and sleep spells. His body fought them, urged on by the curse he was afflicted by, but he continued to stare at Margeary as she walked towards him, wand pointed at his face. “Don’t let me hurt you…” he sobbed through gritted teeth as he fell to his knees, the spells now making headway, “Help me…” 

He collapsed. All went black. 

He woke a few minutes later. It took a few seconds, but he struggled to his feet with some help from Margeary. Unfortunately, the battle had been completed without him… Now all that was left was a prisoner on the ground and marshals standing above him. The students were pushed in, with help from Andrew, and once everything was calm, at least for the hottest second, Andrew looked for her. 

Margeary was sitting by the fire on the furs that, just a few hours ago, were where they had napped. Andrew approached, caution to his step, and knelt to hold her from behind. Her hands found homes on his forearms. “I’m sorry,” he whispered into her shoulder.

“I almost killed you…” Her voice was just as quiet as his. Although they were the only people around that could hear this conversation, the volume wasn’t necessary or even available to them. 

“ _I_ almost killed _you_ …” he responded. Margeary moved and came into his arms fully, their hugs now tight. “I’m so sorry… I didn’t mean to… I’m so…”

“It’s okay… It’s okay…” She repeated the words to him and he continued to hold onto her.

In an instant, he almost became everything he had fought so hard _against_ in the past six months.

In an instant, he had almost become everything he hated.


End file.
